Contemporary politics, local and international current affairs, science and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
Truth never damages a cause that is just ~ MAHATMA GANDHI

Imagine trading energy with your family or best friends or next-door neighbour.

Key points:

Start-up companies are now allowing households and businesses to trade energy with each other

Other companies offer capped price monthly power in return for access to excess energy from rooftop solar

Household solar panel installation has rebounded after weakness for the past few years

That's what Fred and Eglantine Oualid are hoping to do as soon as next year.
They don't have a solar system but are strong believers in renewable energy.
"We like to choose where the energy comes from and who gets our money for it," said Fred Oualid.
He finds dealing with the big energy providers frustrating and is unsure where his energy comes from.

"There's a lack of transparency for sure. A lack of trust as well and misleading information."

Fred
and Eglantine have signed up to trial and eventually use Local Volts,
an energy trading system which doesn't require anything more than a
mobile phone or computer.
"It's connecting people together that have the same ideas. I think that's a really important factor," added Eglantine Oualid.
Local Volts founder Jitendra Tomar describes his system as the eBay of energy trading.
His company will take care of the regulatory requirements, the licences and the bureaucracy.
Households
join up for a flat annual fee and trade energy, whether or not they
have solar systems or the capacity to store electricity.
Buyers
will be able to get their energy from anywhere - the big energy
retailers or their next door neighbour who might have a solar system
with batteries and excess energy to sell.
"There's no transparency at the moment," Mr Tomar said.

"The big power companies simply set a price and consumers have no way of knowing the real cost.

"Local Volts will increase competition and consumers will see the real cost of that energy."
Mr Tomar also said trading can be tailored to be as simple or complicated as individual consumers need.

Surging power prices prompt search for alternatives

The search for alternatives has been stepped up by news households are facing massive increases in electricity prices.
"We've
seen a very quick rapid surge in solar system installations in response
to media reports," said Tristan Edis, the director of policy and
analysis at Green Energy Markets.

Giant German energy company Sonnen is a much bigger player hoping to exploit consumer anger and dissatisfaction.
Sonnen has partnered with South Australian energy company Zen to take on the big energy retailers.
"The
rest of the world's going in a direction of consumers playing a much
bigger role, demand management playing a much bigger role and this way
we can end up with a cheaper grid," said Zen Energy's chairman Ross
Garnaut.

"At the moment,
Australia has a very expensive grid. It's hard to find another one in
the developed world anywhere near as expensive for the amount of
electricity we put through it."

A Sonnen battery will
cost around $8,000 but, once installed, members of the "Sonnen
community" will be charged between $30 and $50 a month for all their
energy needs.
In exchange, the company will have the right to sell any excess power into the grid.
Tristan Edis said Sonnen wants a share of a lucrative market dominated by the established energy retailers.
Sonnen can use the battery at times when it is being underutilised.
It
enables Sonnen to participate in selling some of the capacity in that
battery to either an electricity network or to the wholesale electricity
market where they can exploit large premiums, while the householder
effectively does not even notice.

Richard Martin's giant 10 kilowatt solar system makes him almost immune to the price hikes.
He is his own power plant, with plenty of excess energy to sell, but the big energy retailers are paying him a pittance for it.
"We're in the situation now where we're generating power, it's just not recognised as a valuable commodity," he bemoaned.
Richard Martin plans to add batteries to his system, store the power for himself, and leave the grid.
But
that will prevent him from joining the push for individual households
to be part of the energy trading market, free from the dictates of the
established power companies.
The prospect that households could
become more active energy traders in the not-too-distant future changes
the idea of what it means to be independent. It makes the national grid
even more important.
"The only requirement we have is that you have to be on the electricity grid," explained Mr Tomar.

"Where you're living you must be connected, you cannot be an isolated system."

David Martin at Power Ledger is already testing a system giving households more control.
His
software enables consumers in groups of apartments or commercial
properties to sell excess energy from their solar systems to their
neighbours.
"Consumers really don't have to do anything at all.
They log into the system, they pre-purchase their electricity, and then
the system does all of the trading for them," he said.

The establishment of energy communities will help to reduce pressure on the grid at peak times, and prices should reflect that.
But it will be easier said than done, according to Ross Garnaut.
"Then we'll actually bring the cost of the grid down. Now that won't be easy, that's hard policy," he argued.
"Very
strong vested interests will have to be confronted. [Chief scientist
Alan] Finkel mentioned in his report that it's going to be important to
look at writing down the sunk cost in the grid."
Regulators have guaranteed grid operators their revenue - so when demand falls regulators have sanctioned price increases.

"They're
almost like a casino, they always get their money back irrespective of
how stupid their decisions are," said Tristin Edis.

That will have to change.
Energy
retailers making big profits on reselling energy fed into the grid from
households will also take a big hit as trading platforms unleash
competition and improve transparency.
As electricity prices skyrocket, motivated consumers are cheering on the disruptors.
"You
don't have much power as an individual. Certainly the larger companies
have a lot more power than we do," said Richard Martin.
The established players will not give up their profitable privileged positions without a fight.
The question is, will the fight mean lower costs for households or politicians pushing back against consumer-led change.

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About Me

I was inspired to start this when I discovered old editions of "The Worker". "The Worker" was first published in March 1890, it was the Journal of the Associated Workers of Queensland. It was a Political Newspaper for the Labour Movement. The first Editor was William "Billy" Lane who strongly supported the iconic Shearers' Strike in 1891. He planted the seed of New Unionism in Queensland with the motto “that men should organise for the good they can do and not the benefits they hope to obtain,” he also started a Socialist colony in Paraguay.
Because of the right-wing bias in some sections of the Australian media, I feel compelled to counter their negative and one-sided version of events.
The disgraceful conduct of the Murdoch owned Newspapers in the 2013 Federal Election towards the Labor Party shows how unrepresentative some of the Australian media has become.